The Impact of the Marketing Activities of Family Owned Businesses

Abstract

It has been suggested that family owned businesses are unique. Having been perceived as trustworthy and customer focused, consumers should view their strategies differently, perhaps positively. It then follows that consumers will respond favorably to the marketing activities of family owned businesses. This paper examines the impact of family businesses’ marketing activities on consumers’ purchase intention. Respondents to a mail survey indicated their degree of willingness to respond to sixteen marketing stimuli presentations of family businesses. The original sixteen items were then reduced to six variables (one dependent and five independent) using Factor analysis. Five activities-customer service, product creation, communication, delivery, and exchange were regressed against the dependent variable-purchase intention. The results showed that customer service, communication, and delivery significantly affected purchase intention. Managerial implications were then drawn from the findings. Keywords: